P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center

For my first outer-borough foray post, I dusted off my old Metrocard and headed up to P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. The torturous wait for the V train on the hot-as-Hades platform was counteracted by the quick and easy-breezy subway ride there (though unfortunately the ride home was UN-air-conditioned! Darn you, MTA!). P.S.1, an extension of MoMA, shows oftentimes quirky, sometimes daring, contemporary art by many young, up-and-comers and/or older though less mainstream artists. The big, open space, which used to be a public school, hence its name, is always worth checking out, and is a good venue for housing and displaying the works on view.

Upon entering the center's courtyard, you are greeted by Afterparty, this summer's winner of the Young Architects Project, created by architectural firm MOS. For the past 10 years, P.S.1 has selected a fledgling architect or young architectural firm to design an urban landscape for their courtyard (and venue for their hugely popular summer Saturday party/concert series, Warm Up) using no more than $70,000 and incorporating shade, water, seating, and bar areas. MOS' tall, conical huts made of what looks like horse hair or maybe Snuffleupagus fur (see pics below), act as a cooling shelter for visitors and Warm Up revelers. Through September 28th. Learn more about Afterparty and MOS here. Visit the MOS website here.

To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the Young Architects Project, in the first floor painting gallery is a review of the history of YAP including info, plans, and photos of past contributors. Through September 14th. Learn more about YAP here.

Also on view on the first floor (and below) is Argentine artist Leandro Erlich's Swimming Pool. Walking up a couple of steps to a wooden deck you see what appears to be a normal swimming pool, complete with water and ladder. If you're lucky, you'll see regular people walking around and hanging out underneath the water! Follow more wooden deck stairs down to the lower level and you'll see that the pool is not actually filled with water (a clear piece of acrylic contains the water up above) and visitors are allowed to explore the empty bottom of the pool. It's a fun visual and spacial trick. It made me want to put on my Swimmies and hop in! Through October 24th. Read more about Swimming Pool and Erlich here and visit the artist's website here.

Across from Swimming Pool is New York artist Jonathan Horowitz's exhibition And/Or. Horowitz uses various media to create pieces commenting on politics and pop culture. He touches on gay rights, celebrities, celebrity activism (ie: Elizabeth Taylor and her AIDs activism, Jane Fonda and her stance against the Vietnam War, Doris Day and her animal rights campaigns...), and has a wall of computer printouts of photos he found online of 200 celebrity vegetarians (including Miley Cyrus, Morrissey, Albert Einstein...). He comically and disturbingly juxtaposed a photo of the professionally dressed top-half of the annoyingly perky and wholesome newscaster, Katie Couric, above the bottom-half of a paparazzi crotch-shot of a panty-less, Britney Spears. His minimalist sculptures, ie: Tofu on Pedestal in Gallery, which is a block of tofu soaking in a bowl of water on a pedestal, were perhaps too minimal. Through September 14th. Read more here. And learn more about Horowitz at Artnet.

Upstairs is Berkeley, California artist Lutz Bacher's drawings, paintings, photos, and videos presented in My Secret Life. I liked Bacher's use of celebrity stills of notable figures like Marlon Brando, Jane Fonda, and Jackie Kennedy with her captions added on, as well as her cheeky, Vargas-esque pin-up girl pieces. I could not watch her shaky or slow-moving video works. Through September 14th. More about Bacher and My Secret Life here.

Finally, the main reason why I made the trip out to Queens was to see P.S.1's survey of pioneer film-maker, Kenneth Anger. In a sparsely-lit, red vinyl-covered gallery, the survey focuses on Anger's early works. I was excited to learn more about Anger and see his films because I'd never seen any before. Unfortunately, this exhibition didn't really remedy that. The films are shown either on projection screens scattered throughout the room which play loudly, one-at-a-time, or on small monitors on the floor that play concurrently with headphones. There are also two small, separate screening rooms in the back of the gallery showing films. The layout of the exhibition was disconcerting and not conducive to watching the films comfortably. I was hoping to sack out and watch a few films consecutively, but found the room inhospitable. Maybe it was just me, but I did notice other visitors quickly come and go as well. I caught glimpses of Puce Moment, Scorpio Rising, and one other black-and-white short whose name I did not catch playing on one of the monitors on the floor . From what I saw, these were richly shot and included some great soundtracks. I guess I'll have to visit my library or check out NetFlix to see Anger's work.

On the plus side, the exhibit reminded me to pick up Hollywood Babylon, Anger's 1959 tell-all book that was formerly banned in America. In it, Anger dishes the dirt on major figures from Hollywood's golden era. Read more about the Kenneth Anger survey here and visit his website here.

TIP: If you hold on to your MoMA ticket you can use it for free entry at P.S.1 within 30 days. Otherwise, admission to P.S.1 is 5 bux :)